Fluorophenyl adamantane derivatives anticancer activity and biological targets

Various 4-fluorophenyl adamantane derivatives were synthesized to test the anticancer potential, and to examine the influence of structural alterations on in vitro anticancer activity, and on in silico prediction of biological targets. These analogues displayed varying potencies against a panel of 10 cancer cell lines. Within these compounds, a propoxy-tetrahydropyran analogue, and a cyclohexyl ethyl variant had the highest anticancer activity. Implementation of network pharmacology techniques identified the possible biological cancer-related targets of these compounds. Analysis of these genes revealed core anticancer targets with a high degree of centrality and intractability. In addition, the various analogues had vastly different biological targets due to the structural differences. The incorporation of computational methods within a conventional structure-activity approach had given the ability to assess biological targets in an encompassing manner, which can identify analogues and structural moieties with the highest anticancer potential.